LOS ANGELES
www.dailyjournal.com
THURSDAY, APRIL 18, 2013
LAW FIRM BUSINESS
Irell spinoff with flexible firm model sees banner year: its first
Goldberg, Lowenstein & Weatherwax
grew from 3 to 26 in little over a year
By Ameera Butt / Daily Journal Staff Writer
L
OS ANGELES — Months after general
practice boutique Goldberg, Lowenstein
& Weatherwax LLP celebrated its first anniversary, the firm still has cause for celebration.
Started by a trio of former Irell & Manella
LLP partners, the firm has experienced a surge of
growth over its first year. The fledgling shop now
includes 26 attorneys, five technical consultants
and nine support staff.
Firm founders Perry M. Goldberg, Nathan N.
Lowenstein and Kenneth J. Weatherwax said
they wanted a “different approach” to the rigid
requirements of minimum billable hours and
were eager to experiment with a new, flexible law
firm model that paid attorneys for the amount of
work they did.
“I think all three of us were feeling dissatisfaction of the model of the firm,” Weatherwax said.
“In other words, we thought we could improve it.”
Rather than having fixed salaries, attorneys are
paid for the work they perform, and they have the
freedom to work on as many or as few matters as
they want, according to Lowenstein.
“Our model is not for everyone, because people
don’t like uncertainty and there is a degree of
uncertainty when you’re getting paid for the work
you’re doing,” Goldberg said.
Rather than having fixed salaries, attorneys are paid for the work they perform.
But the firm grew quickly. Within six months
of starting out in Los Angeles, founding partner
Goldberg estimated it had hired 10 to 15 attorneys.
The firm specializes in patent litigation, patent
reexamination, copyright, trademark, antitrust,
election law and general business disputes. Clients include phone companies, semiconductor and
other computing-related technology companies.
Now boasting more than two dozen attorneys,
the firm has brought on five technical consultants
from across the country with experience in start
ups, biomedical engineering and nano technology. The consultants have “technical skills but
also have real world skills” that bolster the team,
Goldberg said.
Goldberg, Lowenstein and Weatherwax recalled that before they left Irell, each was thinking
of striking out on his own, but the attorneys real-
Alexander Drecun / Special to the Daily Journal
Left to right: senior attorney Jonathan C. Balfus, antitrust practice co-chair David Kesselman, antitrust practice co-chair
Trevor Stockinger, senior attorney Amy Brantly, partner Perry M. Goldberg, partner Kenneth J. Weatherwax and partner
Nathan N. Lowenstein.
ized that by joining together, “we would be able
to handle bigger patent matters,” said Goldberg,
who spent 18 years at Irell.
The three founders grew the firm’s ranks by
drawing on other Irell attorneys. Nearly half of
the attorneys at the firm are Irell alumni, according
to the firm.
And growth wasn’t limited to the firm’s headcount. More than a dozen new clients sought the
services of Goldberg, Lowenstein & Weatherwax,
according to Goldberg. Some of the firm’s first
clients were Los Angeles City Council members
Jan Perry and Bernard C. Parks, who retained
Lowenstein to provide an assessment of whether
the council’s redistricting lines were susceptible
to legal challenges.
In order to keep costs low, the firm didn’t lease
large office spaces in other locations. Instead, it
pays for office space at its two satellite offices
in San Diego and Palo Alto as needed, Goldberg
said. It also charges lower rates than most large
firms — associates don’t bill in excess of $490
per hour, Lowenstein said.
“That allows us not to put the firm in financial risk,” he said. “Not only are we charging
substantially lower rates, but we are trying to be
very sensitive to clients’ interests when it comes
to what they’re paying.”
Goldberg, Lowenstein & Weatherwax followed
in the footsteps of another Los Angeles-based
boutique that spun off from Irell. Three of the
firm’s entertainment litigators in 2009 left to
establish Kendall Brill & Klieger LLP.
In what seems to echo the impetus behind
Goldberg, Lowenstein & Weatherwax’s founding,
the initial impulse for Kendall Brill was to allow
more flexibility in serving longtime clients and
create a “great environment” designed to attract
young lawyers, according to founding partner
Richard B. Kendall.
The firm began with five lawyers and doubled
in its first year, Kendall said in an email. Currently
the firm employs 15 lawyers.
Kendall said Irell has spawned many successful spin off firms, in part because many talented
lawyers have called it home.
Observers said that although Irell has a remarkable track record of partner retention, the
firm cultivates an entrepreneurial spirit, thus some
lawyers leave to open their own firms.
“Those that have formed their own firms also
have complete flexibility and control over lowering billing rates,” legal recruiter Larry Watanabe
said in an email, adding that Irell has “extremely
high rates.”
Watanabe said that spinoffs also have “the
ability to take on contingency matters with greater
pay-out due to fewer lawyers sharing profit.”
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